Michael Girdley: 04/01/2007

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Team FullTiltPoker.com Not So Great?

All-time tournament results for some major members of Team FullTiltPoker.com:

Username	Games Played	Av. Profit	Av. Stake	Av. ROI	Total Profit
Mike Matusow	245	($252)	$1,755	-9%	($61,831)
Mark Vos	1,548	($13)	$305	-2%	($19,577)
Steve Zolotow	668	($19)	$200	-12%	($12,521)
Erick Lindgren	15	($687)	$1,530	-36%	($10,299)
Gus Hansen	31	($211)	$1,694	-27%	($6,552)
Layne Flack	130	($48)	$296	-11%	($6,279)
Phil Gordon	54	($108)	$345	-21%	($5,825)
David Benyamine	1	($2,050)	$2,000	-100%	($2,050)
Clonie Gowen	97	($16)	$262	-9%	($1,528)
Robert Mizrachi	8	($91)	$456	-4%	($732)
Jim McManus	49	($13)	$37	-19%	($635)
Ben Roberts	2	($97)	$330	108%	($194)
Farzad Bonyadi	2	($2)	$50	-5%	($5)
Perry Friedman	116	$1	$16	8%	$73
Andy Bloch	55	$5	$130	8%	$270
Chris Ferguson	105	$4	$7	52%	$447
Chip Jett	15	$34	$89	35%	$507
David Chiu	3	$224	$248	49%	$672
John Cernuto	9	$89	$334	2%	$800
Erik Seidel	83	$10	$30	54%	$841
Stuart Paterson	168	$10	$453	12%	$1,601
Jennifer Harman	43	$57	$354	13%	$2,442
John Juanda	5	$764	$840	91%	$3,820

Thoughts:

1) Why aren't these guys playing very many tourneys online? Interesting correlation is that the three who play the MOST online are the biggest losers.

2) Matusow is just plain hilarious. How does someone who is such a long-term loser get any fame at all?

Is Team PokerStars any good?

After watching ELKY donk off more money than I can count, I became curious if he and other "Team PokerStars" pros and amateurs are winning players. SharkScope.com allows me to see their tournament results:

Name	Games	Av. Profit	Av. Stake	Av. ROI	Total $
ElkY	14,396	-$12	$605	2%	-$171,518
Exclusive	426	-$136	$812	-7%	-$58,130
FossilMan	142	-$202	$771	-8%	-$28,731
Bill Chen	160	-$167	$654	-24%	-$26,650
Humberto B.	76	-$295	$490	-41%	-$22,403
JoeHachem	36	-$103	$618	35%	-$3,693
VictorRamdin	236	-$15	$694	-5%	-$3,458
NoMercy	50	-$42	$101	-26%	-$2,120
Wil Wheaton	223	-$1	$13	-5%	-$295
LadyMaverick	112	-$1	$215	-8%	-$166
Katja Thater	20	-$2	$17	-24%	-$47
LucaPagano	171	$N/A	$N/A	-13%	$N/A
John Duthie	131	$N/A	$N/A	-25%	$N/A
stevejpa	142	$1	$27	101%	$175
Money800	360	$2	$390	1%	$811
LeeNelsonP*	209	$18	$241	8%	$3,693
barryg1	125	$33	$1,639	0%	$4,036
Tom McEvoy	242	$27	$134	12%	$6,523

This only reflects tournaments and no cash game results.

Why is the supposed PokerStars All-Star team a bunch of net losers? From a PokerStars company standpoint, it's not a bad idea to have featured players be a bunch of donkeys. If the "best" are losing money in buckets, why wouldn't they give some of it to you? As a student of the game, this gang is a poor set of role models.

As for the biggest loser, Elky, he has a very interesting combination of postive ROI but a negative total profit. From what I've seen of his play, he's playing out of his class too often and opponents in those tougher games do a better job of exploiting his weaknesses. His play is questionable mainly due to multi-tabling up to 12 tables at a time such that he appears to not be doing much except playing his cards. At lower limits with weaker competition, that can work. But a $2,200 1-table SNG, no one is going to make enough obvious mistakes to his style anything but a losing proposition.

Word to the wise: Avoid Barry Greenstein and McEvoy and hope to land Bill Chen at your tournament table!